Blog week ending 21st July

What a fabulous end to our academic year!  We have had a week of celebrations, sporting prowess and .. a fair bit of partying!  Our Year 7 end of year celebration disco was a highlight for the students and was a wonderfully up-beat climax to their first year at Stone lodge School.  Special thanks go to the student helpers who transformed the space and really set the scene for the evening. Ollie, our own resident DJ, managed to get even the most reticent up on the dance floor! 

 

Sports Day.  Congratulations to all our sporting competitors, each of you gave it your all making it a hugely enjoyable day both for those taking part and us cheering you on from the touchlines!  I was incredibly impressed at the the level of skill on show, including great sprinting technique and strong communication and team work from the football ptches and netball courts.  A massive thank you to all staff and our amazing Year 12 Sports students for helping out with the refereeing, scoring and generally helping make the day so enjoyable for all the student competitors.  The results are in (drum roll).  A special congratulations to our winning House - Hawking

The results:

1st- Hawking- 614

2nd- Johnson- 587

3rd-Seacole-515

4th-Edison- 452

In additon to sporting events, students took part in a number of in class engineering heats including, pictured below 7G bridge building with spaghetti and marshmallows!.  It was a teamwork activity that contributed to the Sports Day House point tally.  Kai C, Callum P, Levi P and Finley W were the eventual winners in the form, with their bridge being able to support a whole pencil case!

As promised in my previous School Blog, I have included a photo montage of our year group trips and activities.  The weather wasn’t entirely in our favour .. but we certainly had fun!

The Year 12 Engineers have been busy over the last two weeks starting two new units. Both of these units look at the production of different types of engineering products: sheet materials and electronics. Mrs George and Miss Arklie secured trips to two local engineering companies where the students had tours of their facilities and shadowed batch and mass production techniques being used.

On Monday 10^th July, the engineers went to C&D Sheet Metal Ltd. They walked through the factory from where the material delivery gets brought in, through to cutting, folding and joining processes. They even saw how products are safety packaged up for transport to the consumer. Students witnessed some high-tech, expensive equipment such as the CNC punch press and the RAS Multibend Centre. They asked insightful questions around the machines speed, accuracy and quality of finish. 

On 18^th July, the engineers went to Tecel Technology PLC. They went on a tour of how batch production of PCBs (printed circuit boards) are made for several different electronic devices. Our engineers learnt about the systems in place to produce high quality PCBs. They saw how efficiently jobs were set up. We saw a diverse workforce work in several different department to build a product. Students were very interested in how many of the company’s leaders started off as apprentices many years ago. 

More congratulations are in order for Sammy H who has scooped two silver medals in the WUKF karate world championships in Dundee.  What an achievement to be competing against the best in the world and to secure a silver in both his mini cadet kata trio and a Silver in the individual 12-year-old, over 155cm kumite.  This is a stunning performance, we are thrilled for you Sammy!     

Our Science Technicians have updated their window display to reflect the end of term … our display skeleton can be found lounging in a hammock in the second-floor window!

Forthcoming Dates;

First day of term – NEW Year 7 & 12 Monday 4^th September, ALL OTHER YEARS Tuesday 5^th September

On behalf of us all we’d like to wish you the most relaxing and enjoyable summer break! 

Best wishes,

Gavin Barnett

Head Teacher